Cook-County Skiing
by Suburban Prophet and noisemake
Summary: What happens when the ER staff goes to Carter's cabin in the Porqupine Mountains for a long ski weekend???!


Ok so we we came up with this idea on a ride up the hill in a ski lift back in February and we wrote most of this in the car on the way back. It's taken a while to get posted mostly because if has been lost at the bottom of one of our lockers since then. So here it is.  
Disclaimer: We own nothing.  
Spoilers: Some season seven, but nothing after "The Crossing."  
Note; It takes place about three years in the future.   
  
She silently laughed at them lugging all their junk into the mansion. She had one rolling suitcase and a Anne!bag. They had all their ski gear, which loaded to about four bags each, plus the actual skis and snowboards.  
  
"Let me see if I can find all the lights," Carter said, reaching his hand in the door and flicking random switches. Finally the porch light turned on. "I'll give you a quick tour, just throw your junk into any bedrooms you decide on." He grinned mischievously and said, "I'm sure there will be more than enough." He got a snowball in his face from Corday for his troubles. "Oh, and four more people are coming tomorrow, so if your roommate snores, deal with it."  
  
Weaver heard Mark mumble down to Corday, "I do not snore."  
  
"You do too," she answered, elbowing him.  
  
"We won't even ask who," Benton spoke up, "You'll only make the suspense worse until the morning."  
  
"Only to piss you off, Peter,' Carter said, with an obnoxious half-grin on his face.  
  
"Okay, lets get this show on the road," Romano announced, appearing from behind one of the cars with his skis. "Nice place," he said, looking the mansion over, "I'll see to it that you don't get a raise this year."  
  
"I'll give you a raise," Carter said under his breath. Romano didn't hear, but Kovac was holding back laughter.  
  
Carter quickly ran them through the house, showing them the kitchen, bedrooms, and so on. Weaver was sure she'd get lost in that maze. "You all might want to get some sleep," Carter said when he was through, "We want to be ready early tomorrow." He grinned mysteriously. "Our guests are showing up by eight."  
  
"I plan on being on the slopes at eight," Romano said, "Goodnight you all. I can only hope you don't get paged." With that he disappeared around the corner, banging his skis into the wall. He didn't trust Carter's closets.  
  
When they heard his door slam, Weaver was finally able to ask, "Carter what were you thinking?"  
  
"He wasn't thinking," Benton said, but he looked amused.  
  
"What? He's one of us," replied Carter. Corday, Kovac, and Abby, who were listening to the conversation, seemed quite unconvinced.  
  
"Not really Carter," Benton said, "I mean he looks down at us from his little perch."  
  
"That bald little man really knows how to get under everyone's skin," chimed in Corday, "Think of how much he annoys us at County, not try seeing him ALL day everyday."  
  
"Come on guys, it might not be that bad," answered Carter, "You can't talk to him while you are on the slopes, so the most you have to see him is during meals and at night. He might even turn out to be a somewhat nice guy when he isn't being an overbearing administrator."  
  
Not wanting to prolong this conversation into the wee hours of the morning, Weaver forced a yawn. "Whatever's done is done. The only thing we can do is deal with him, ok. So everyone I think it would be best if we all went to bed."  
  
The others nodded in agreement and went to their rooms. Kerry entered her room, and being to tired to change, fell across the bed and went to sleep.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Mark and Elizabeth were sitting in the front room after breakfast discussing the plans for the day. All of a sudden the doorbell rang. "Carter, do you want me to get it?" yelled Mark.  
  
"Yeah, thanks Mark," came a response from somewhere in the house.  
  
Mark opened the door and was greeted by a strong hug before he could tell who it was. "Hey buddy," said the voice. When he was released, Mark realized that the person at the door was none other than Doug Ross.  
  
"I'm sorry but I don't know you, let me ask the others," replied Mark fighting back a smile. "Does anyone else here know a Doug and Carol Ross or should I send them away?" he yelled into the house. Within two seconds everyone except Romano, Abby, Chleo, and Malucci were at the front door greeting the new arrivals and ogling over Kate and Tess.  
  
"Let me give you a hand," said Mark as he followed Doug to the car to unload. "So Carter decided to plan a little reunion, did he?"  
  
"I guess so," replied Doug.  
  
They pulled the last of the bags out of Doug's car and Mark closed the trunk. "Well, now that everyone's here I think it's about time we should head to the slopes," he said to Doug.  
  
Just then a black Cherokee pulled into the driveway. "I wouldn't be too sure about that,' he said to Mark nodding towards the car.  
  
"Why don't you head in, I'll see who it is," Mark said to him. Doug headed into the monstrous house, and Mark started towards the new arrival. Whoever was driving was already out of the car and bent over in the trunk pulling her bags out. "Excuse me, can I help you?" he asked.  
  
"Yeah that would be great," she replied. She picked her head up to see who was coming to her aid. She saw Mark leaning on her car, and she instantly dropped her bags and ran to him. "Mark!" she cried as she threw her arms around his neck almost knocking him over.  
  
Mark steadied himself, and returned the hug. "Susan!" he said. They broke their hug. "I haven't seen you in so long. How did you find out about this little excursion?"  
  
"I ran into Carter at a conference a few months ago and we've been keeping in touch ever since. He told me about this trip and asked me to come. I couldn't resist a chance to see the gang from County."  
  
"Great. I'm glad your here," he said as he picked up her skis/poles and boot bag. "Let's head in, and I'll introduce you to the new people."  
  
The walked around the car and towards the house. Elizabeth was standing in the doorway waiting for him. "Well this should be an interesting introduction," he thought.  
  
"Susan," he said when he reached the door, "This is my wife Elizabeth Corday. Elizabeth, Susan Lewis."  
  
Susan stopped short. "It's nice to meet you Susan," said Elizabeth breaking the few seconds of silence, and extending her hand in friendship. Susan took it cautiously, "It's nice to meet you too."  
  
"This is starting good," he thought, "I hope it lasts the whole trip." He looked at the two women, and he noticed Susan looking at his left hand. "Elizabeth, is David up yet?" he asked.  
  
"Yeah, he's with Doug and Carol. He's taken quite a liking to the twins," she replied.  
  
"Twins? David?" said Susan confused, "Carter hasn't filled me in on anything that's been going on."  
  
"Let's go, I'll introduce you to everyone," said Mark as they headed in.  
  
After introducing Susan to all the new staff form County, and the three kids, they decided to head to the mountain. Carter and Kerry stayed behind to wait for the last person, Anna.  
~~~Time Lapse~~~  
  
"Ski trip my big bald head," Mark thought angrily to himself. He'd hoped to spend some time with his wife, but she'd shoved him out the lodge. "I want to catch up with Carol," she'd said, "I'll meet you in a little while I promise."  
  
If that wasn't bad enough, he'd met Kovac getting off the ski left. "Hey Mark, I'll race you down," he'd said, and Mark had agreed. Well, he'd fallen flat on his face down the first five feet, and had gotten up just in time to see Kovac disappear around a turn. That was the last he'd seen of him.  
  
At least no one was there to laugh at him now. Somehow he'd managed to fall-again-and had his skis and poles tangled behind him. He had untangled himself enough to twist his head around for a view of the mess, only to find a tall spray of snow heading straight for his face.   
  
"Stupid son of a bitch!" Mark spluttered, spitting out snow, "Why don't you watch where the hell you're going?!?!!"  
  
"I was so enraptured by your demonstration of skill that I just couldn't contain myself," said the voice. It was Corday-and she was laughing at him! "God Mark, where'd you learn such language?"  
  
She extended the handle of one of her poles to help him up. "Revenge time," he thought. "That isn't even worthy of a response," he said as he took the handle in one hand a placed the other on the ground for 'support.' All of a sudden he grabbed the handle with both hands and gave it a tug. Elizabeth lost her balance and fell over sideways next to him. He pushed a pile of snow into her hair, and got up quickly.  
  
"Ohhh, that was cruel," she said, standing up. He sped off down the mountain, struggling to keep on his feet. He turned around slightly to see her coming down after her. He turned the corner and saw that the bottom of the run wasn't very far off.   
  
He reached it before she had, but not by much, and got on line for the ski lift back up. She slid into place next to him, giving him a push sideways. "OK ok," he said, "Truce? We're even now."  
  
"Fine," she replied, "But you have to admit it was quite humorous. You on the ground covered in snow, cursing." She continued to laugh, trying not to make it sound to mean.  
  
"Yeah well, you still have snow in your hair," he said as he started to pick out stray clumps out of her red hair. He suddenly added a huge handful of snow.   
  
"You keep adding that snow, and you're sleeping on the floor tonight," she said to him. He stopped adding snow, and laughed.   
  
"Fine, I'll stop," he replied. He glanced down at his watch. " How about this, it's almost noon, we do one more run and then head in to have much with David?" he asked.  
  
"Sure. " They slid into place and grabbed the sides of the chair as it came up behind them.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
TO BE CONTINUED 


End file.
